The exchange difference with Argentina continues to give chapters of drama for the merchants and businessmen of the coast of the Uruguay who express concern about job losses, lower levels of activity as opposed to a increase in smuggling from the neighboring country.
This Tuesday a statement signed by entrepreneurs in the commercial, business and rural sector which exposes the problem of the drop in the real value of the dollar, production and low prices that affect the coast.
“The combination of the low real value of the dollar, the low production and low priceserode the viability and company competitiveness and they do not take long to reflect on all the links of the work chain in the interior, ”the statement states.
In this sense, from the trade unions they demand further actions by the government Faced with the exchange rate difference with Argentina that, together with contraband and the Uruguayan exchange rate delay, continue to hit border businesses.
“The government has basically listened to the crisis, but it is considered that The measures taken are not enough. The delay and the loss of purchase value of the dollar persist and worsen, and the underlying problems have not been resolved,” the statement noted.
A real problem, with real statistics
The effects of the exchange difference compared to Argentina continue to show results in the levels of unemployment and business activity. In the latest data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) you can see the department of Black river as the one with the highest unemployment with a percentage of 14.9%. This one is followed Artigas, Salto and Paysandú, with unemployment rates of 14.7%, 13.8% and 11.5% respectively.
On the other hand, the number of companies and employed personnel decreased during the first quarter of the year in relation to the last quarter of 2022.
In this context, and according to INE data, the number of active companies and employed personnel fell by 0.26% and 0.57%, respectively, during the first quarter of 2023 in Jump, Paysandu and Black river, respectively.
In year-on-year terms —comparing the first quarter of the year with the same quarter last year— the births of companies registered a negative variation in both Río Negro (-31.5%) and Paysandú (-3.5%), while in Salto the variation was positive, 17.5%.
Tourism also suffers the consequences
At the beginning of the winter holidays, the Minister of Tourism, Tabaré Viera, admitted the problems to coastal tour operators by exchange difference with Argentina and admitted that you are Winter Break were “the most complicated period that we have lived in recent times”.
Speaking at a press conference, he said that “there were not a large number of reservations well in advance” and specified that they were around the 50% in Cologne. In turn, he recognized that “on the coast and the hot springs we have other problems such as the exchange rate, because of how expensive our destinations are compared to Argentines”.
According to data provided by the Ministry of Interior, a total of 460,708 people traveled from Uruguay to other countries during the Winter Break, with Argentina as preferred destination with at least, 370,000 Uruguayans that They traveled to the neighboring country.
Source: Ambito
